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Tony Barnes
Tony Barnes is a video game designer from Double Helix Games who worked as Design Director and writer for the [[Strider (2014)|2014 Strider]]. Early Days Tony Barnes grew up in San Francisco during the 80's, a place he refers to as "the mecca of game development" and credits it as enabling him to become a game makerPadilla, Daniel (May 17, 2016). "Tony Barnes - Design Director" (English). wearegamedevs.com. Accessed November 22, 2019. Growing up with video game magazines, he started out programming little games for friends and user groups at a young age. At age 15 he published his first video game: Escape from Hell, a 1988 game for Atari picked up and published by computer magazine Antic. He'd publish a few other games through the magazine in the following years. Career Electronic Arts Barnes joined Electronic Arts in 1992, and spent 3 years with the company working mainly as game designer. During this time he developed Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf and its follow-ups Jungle Strike, Urban Strike and Nuclear Strike. He is particularly proud of Jungle Strike as he put "so much of himself" in it, making the sequel much bigger and tighter than Desert Strike. Barnes left Electronic Arts around 1995. After working briefly for several companies, Tony Barnes joined The Collective in 2000 and worked with them for the next 5 years. From 2008 to 2010 he briefly returned to Electronic Arts and worked in Medal of HonorMedal of Honor (in English). (Electronic Arts). PlayStation 3. Level/area: End credits. (October 2010).. He’d then join Double Helix Games in 2012, continuing his work as Game Designer. Double Helix Games His first work for Double Helix was their video game adaptation of the movie BattleshipBattleship (in English). (Activision). PlayStation 3. Level/area: End credits. (April 2012)., itself based on the board game. He’d take part of the development of the 2014 incarnation of Strider as both director and writer''Strider'' (in English). (Capcom). PlayStation 3. Level/area: End credits. (February 2014).. Barnes believes it was their passion and understanding of the franchise what sold Capcom on working with Double Helix, citing that there were several fans of the series among the staff, himself includedCalvert, Darren (February 7, 2014). "Interview: Double Helix Games on Carving Out a New Strider for PS4". pushsquare.com. Accessed November 22, 2019. He has referred to making a Strider game as his "dream game"GregaMan (February 13, 2014). "Get the dirt on Strider's new game with this behind-the-scenes feature" (English). Capcom-unity.com. Accessed November 22, 2019, and is particularly proud of his work since he’s had “make a Strider-like game” in his personal bucket list for roughly 20 years, and making an actual "Strider" game was an opportunity he’d have never missed. Tony Barnes developed Strider to be an open action adventure as he considered the genre was best suited to build upon the core abilities of Strider, specifically “fast and fluid combat”. Each and every ability of Hiryu was planned out to maintain that high speed and fluidity, and any ability that slowed down the player was either reworked until it was able to maintain the Strider “feel” or cut out entirely. He considered the ability to upgrade one of the important elements of the game, thinking it was very important that each upgrade didn’t just made Hiryu stronger, but also allowed the player to maneuver around the environment. Barnes also considered a different approach from other games in the genre: rather than start out “uber-powerful” and have it all stripped away at the beginning, Hiryu starts out powerful and becomes even stronger as the game progresses. Keeping the old-school feeling about abilities in that they are left for the player to figure out how to use, thinking in figuring them makes the player feel empowered, getting better and finding out more the further they play. Amazon Game Studios Barnes remained with the company after it was acquired by Amazon and became Amazon Game Studios Orange County. Their first game for Amazon was Breakway, a PC e-sports gameMcCormick, Rich (September 30, 2016). "Amazon's next game will be the first to use Twitch's new currency". theverge.com. Accessed November 22, 2019. First announced in 2016 the game was in development for 2 years with a planned release in 2019, but unfortunately Amazon cancelled its development in 2018.Olivetti, Justin (March 31, 2018). "Amazon Game Studio's Breakaway is officially dead" (English). MassivelyOP.com. Accessed November 22, 2019 Gameography References Category:Creators